While Bruno Le Maire is releasing a book that looks like a program this Wednesday, March 20, Emmanuel Macron would have mocked the productivity of his Minister of the Economy.
Bruno Le Maire's latest book would not leave Emmanuel Macron indifferent. While the sixth book by the Minister of the Economy called A French Way is published this Wednesday, March 20 by Flammarion, the Head of State is said to have let slip some spicy comments addressed to the tenant of Bercy. Words that came back to the ears of Le Canard chainé and were exposed to Bruno Le Maire who came to promote his book on the set of France 5 on Tuesday evening.
With this text that looks like a program, would the minister lay the first milestones for a possible candidacy for the presidential election? He assured him several times that no. “I am not a candidate” for 2027, he declared again at franceinfo on March 18, also denying in passing that he wanted to write a program book. For its author, the work is simply "a profession of faith in France" in which he speaks "mainly about the economy, job creation, reindustrialization", i.e. subjects which fall "into [his] field of SKILLS". But program with a view to the presidential election or not, the book would have made Emmanuel Macron react, who would have agreed with Bruno Le Maire "on economic recovery and the reforms to be made" and would have ironically advised him to "speak to the one who is Minister of Economy and Finance for seven years."
Do the statements attributed to the President of the Republic reflect annoyance on the part of the Head of State regarding the Minister of the Economy? More particularly on his commitment to Bercy? “There is a time for writing and a time for action, and they are rarely reconcilable” Emmanuel Macron would have added, deploring that “when ministers write books, it always gives the feeling that they have nothing else to do” according to the Canard chainé.
But Bruno Le Maire does not waver in the face of the criticism put into the mouth of the Head of State. Calm and confident about his record at the Ministry of the Economy, he considered that his work at Bercy for seven years is "one of the strong elements of the record of the President of the Republic". Especially since the minister would be used to comments on his literary production: "I have been reading for seven years the comments of the President of the Republic on me which are reported by newspapers or others, I read them but I ignore them because I consider that the work we have done is good work.”
However, he did not fail to say a word about the compatibility of his activity as an author with his political and governmental commitment: “I am totally, fully committed, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to obtain these results. " Results which have apparently convinced Emmanuel Macron over the years, the proof with the systematic maintenance of the minister during the various reshuffles which punctuated the two mandates of the President of the Republic.
These barbs, however, would not be the first launched against Bruno Le Maire. Last December, when Elisabeth Borne was still Prime Minister and trying to reach an agreement on the immigration bill, she sent the Minister of the Economy back to his cages after the latter's very frank positions on a subject that did not depend on him, indicated Le Point. “I reminded [Bruno Le Maire] that the deficit in 2023 amounted to 4.9% of GDP, that it had to be reduced to 4.4% in 2024 and that it would be a good idea to start to take care of it” she said during a meeting with the leaders of the majority, implying that the minister was not doing enough work.
